Hey all! My name is Shannon and I am not forum-savvy so feel free to point me to a different location or yell at me about posting here.I'm just looking for a little help with a Tolkien translation for a quote! I have no idea where to look, and I've searched the corners of the internet for a LOTR linguist who could draw me up a short phrase -

I am about to get a tattoo of the doors of Durin or gates of Moria directly as it is drawn in the novel, in place of the text that reads:"The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter. I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs."I would like to replace that with the following:"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

I know - seems irrelevant. But the doors of durin are one of my favorite illustrations and the quote is the msot impactful, for me, in the entire novels.

I need advice on the appropriate language, what is the language used in the original illustration? What are the symbols? Can you tell me where I can have a translation made for me?

Sabra wrote:I am about to get a tattoo of the doors of Durin or gates of Moria directly as it is drawn in the novel, in place of the text that reads:"The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter. I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs."I would like to replace that with the following:"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

I know - seems irrelevant. But the doors of durin are one of my favorite illustrations and the quote is the msot impactful, for me, in the entire novels.

I need advice on the appropriate language, what is the language used in the original illustration? What are the symbols? Can you tell me where I can have a translation made for me?]

The symbols are Tengwar. I couldn't tell you the translation though, but Xandarien is a pretty willing translator, in this thread:

I know this is a Sindarin quote translation but I need to ask-is there a person willing to help me with a translation to Khuzdul for a friend of mine? I am not sure if he is willing to transcribe it also, but the quote he wants to have is "Home is behind the world ahead"

Arlaug wrote:I know this is a Sindarin quote translation but I need to ask-is there a person willing to help me with a translation to Khuzdul for a friend of mine? I am not sure if he is willing to transcribe it also, but the quote he wants to have is "Home is behind the world ahead"

Khuzdul has a very small vocabulary - to do this translation it would have to be in Neo-Khuzdul (using words made up for the Hobbit films for example). Would this be acceptable?

There doesn't seem to be a word for 'world' at all, would they be happy with a synonym such as 'Middle Earth'? ('Earth' itself only exists such as 'soil, dirt', as opposed to Sindarin which has 'Earth' as in 'the planet').

From what I can gather from the grammar of the written texts (both by Tolkien and Salo), both 'the' and 'is' don't exist as separate words.

I could possibly transcribe it to Cirth, but not tonight, it'll take considerably more time than a translation